Over the past ten years, the funding environment for medical research in the U.S. has become increasingly competitive. By leveraging existing datasets and unique analysis capabilities in the Human Resources office, a small team of senior leaders teamed with an HR data analyst set out to identify and advocate for organizational change. The question is: How do you build high-performance proposal development teams in a rapidly changing environment? While this work may not win a Nobel Prize nor cure Alzheimer's Disease, it will help scientists bring in more dollars towards life-saving research.